1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an Ethernet switch/router for an unshielded twisted pair (UTP)/optical integrated network and a frame processing method thereof.
2. Related Art
Ethernet switches for switching a frame in a network or routers for forwarding a frame may be classified into fast Ethernet supporting ones and Gigabit Ethernet supporting ones.
As Gigabit Ethernet has recently been commercialized, a need has developed for an Ethernet switch or a router (hereinafter, Ethernet switch/router) which can accommodate existing fast Ethernet switches/routers, as well as Gigabit Ethernet-based Ethernet switches/routers.
The existing fast Ethernet-based Ethernet switch/router comprises: an RJ-45 connector connected to a physical layer of a fast Ethernet network, i.e., an unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable network; a transformer for transforming a voltage of a signal received from the UTP cable network; a physical chip for processing a frame in the physical layer; and a media access control (MAC) chip for switching or forwarding a fame.
The existing Gigabit Ethernet-based switch/router comprises an optical module mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) for connection to an external device via an optical cable for converting an optical signal into an electrical signal, a physical chip for processing a frame in the physical layer, and a MAC chip for switching or forwarding a frame.
The existing fast Ethernet-based switch/router and the existing Gigabit Ethernet-based switch/router differ in terms of the media interface of the physical chip. That is, the existing fast Ethernet-based switch/router has a UPT cable as the media interface of the physical chip, while the existing Gigabit Ethernet-based switch/router has an optical cable as the media interface of the physical chip. For the foregoing reason, a single Ethernet switch/router cannot accommodate both fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet, and each Ethernet switch/router has been designed to support only one media.
More specifically, connecting the UTP cable using the RJ-45 connector in the fast Ethernet-based switch/router requires a transformer to transform a voltage of the cable signal, and all pins of the RJ-45 connector need to be connected to the physical chip in order to support 1000 BASE-TX.
On the other hand, connecting the optical cable using the optical module in the Gigabit Ethernet-based switch/router does not require a transformer because signal exchange is made in a different signal form. However, the optical module should be able to support transmission speeds of BASE-FX and 1000BASE-FX.
In order to accommodate both the fast Ethernet and the Gigabit Ethernet, a separate media converting device for matching the UPT cable and the optical cable should be additionally implemented in the Ethernet switch/router.